Should You Outsource Your Hospital’s Parking Operation?

Healthcare facility leaders sometimes shy away from the idea of outsourced parking operations. It’s good to be cautious — hospitals, as traditionally under-parked facilities, have piqued the interest of out-of-industry firms who lack practical experience and even theoretical know-how.

However, partner with the right provider, and the rewards are vast. The ISO reports that outsourcing can cut operational costs by an average of 15% — a figure that Impark uses as a minimum benchmark and has comfortably doubled for some of our partners. In addition, a dedicated parking management company can help you gain a crucial edge in an increasingly competitive market and cement the superiority of your non-clinical patient experience.

As former Prime Minister of Singapore Lee Kuan Yew famously said, “If you deprive yourself of outsourcing and your competitors do not, you’re putting yourself out of business.”

Parking Operators Are Specialists

Healthcare is an industry built on specialization. Nurses and doctors dedicate years of their lives to becoming experts on specific parts of the body and how to treat them, which ultimately delivers a higher standard of care.

In the same vein, healthcare facilities comprise intricate parts that each require specialist attention. Just as a dermatologist isn’t expected to know the complexities of the brain, your in-house operations team cannot be expected to know the minutiae of parking and traffic management.

Partnering with a professional parking management company grants you access to a team of specialists with a wealth of practical experience. For example, our executive team has collectively accumulated over 100 years of experience in the parking niche, while our Impark HEALTH leaders have accrued an average of 20 years each in the healthcare vertical.

It’s this experience that makes your parking operator the most qualified entity to accurately diagnose your parking facility, recommend the best course of treatment, and secure optimal outcomes.

Parking Operators Save You Time

A turnkey parking management solution alleviates the workload of multiple departments. Your finance team, for example, will be able to streamline their payroll processing, budget management, and cost monitoring duties. Your HR department will no longer be bogged down by scheduling, backfill, and retention issues related to your parking asset. Impark HEALTH’s partners even reap the benefits of an award-winning monthly parking management interface without their IT departments being burdened with extra technical support duties.

In short, thinly spread human capital can be reconnected with core competencies and primary goals across the board, boosting productivity and, ultimately, the quality of your clinical and non-clinical care. As legendary business consultant Peter Drucker quipped, “Do what you do best, and outsource the rest.”

Parking Operators Save You Money

Your team of parking specialists comes with a powerful network of tried-and-tested suppliers, equipment vendors, and contractors with which they can leverage their buying power — efficiencies unavailable on a single–contract basis.

In addition, they can critically evaluate your parking asset through a specialist’s lens, steering you toward good decisions of all shapes and sizes. So, when the time comes to evaluate whether you need a new parking facility or to simply increase your existing lot’s capacity without construction, a specialist has the potential to save you millions of dollars.

Parking Operators Provide Personnel

Before I joined Impark HEALTH, I managed in-house parking at a hospital. A dearth of dedicated parking staff led me to cross-train security personnel as parking enforcement officers. However, the municipally mandated program they were required to attend brought my security staff off-site for days at a time, cost thousands of dollars, and presented a host of challenges when applied. All in all, we didn’t achieve optimal results.

Parking management companies provide dedicated, high-caliber parking personnel. From valet attendants to on-site managers, each employee is trained to an impeccable standard using market-driven, professionally developed resources. Plus, experienced parking operators schedule their staff in a manner directly responsive to the ebb and flow of on-campus traffic, ensuring that your facility can meet demand at peak times while being appropriately staffed during calmer periods of the day.

Parking Operators Can Help Prevent HAIs

Reputable parking management companies that operate in healthcare environments know the importance of preventing healthcare-associated infections (HAIs.) As the overseers of your first patient/visitor touchpoint on-site, they have an opportunity to actively manage infection control in your parking facility in order to avoid a cascade effect on your campus.

Aside from the practicality of parking-facility infection control, its role in the entry/exit experience can also strengthen visitor and patient confidence in the quality and safety of your clinical care.

Impark HEALTH staff, in particular, complete rigorous infection control training that complies with and exceeds the expectations of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) in the U.S. and Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety (CCOHS) in Canada.

Impark HEALTH

Switching from in-house to contracted parking management is a big step — but it’s one toward greater efficiencies, higher revenues, and a superior patient experience.

Over the past 30 years, Impark HEALTH has developed a deep understanding of the unique operational challenges facing healthcare parking assets. We respond appropriately to anxious patients and visitors, maintain exceptional safety standards, and understand the need for the efficient allocation of parking resources. Get in touch to see how we can help you.

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